SIU clears police officers in fatal Carnival shooting

Toronto • Two Toronto Police officers should not be criminally charged for their part in the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old man and the injuring of a 21-year-old female bystander during the Caribbean Carnival parade this past summer, the province’s Special Investigations Unit said Monday.

While acknowledging the “great tragedy” that Megan Martin was shot the night of July 30, the independent arm’s-length agency concluded the officers had “lawful authority to use lethal force” when responding to the altercation that killed Kevin Murray.

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The SIU said Mr. Murray and an “accomplice” were at the carnival parade on Lake Shore Boulevard West in the early evening when they got into a fight with another man. A bystander started recording the fight with a digital camera, apparently spurring Mr. Murray and his accomplice to begin attacking the photographer instead, the SIU said. During that attack, witnesses told the SIU they heard between two and four gun shots. Many of those witnesses said that at some point during the fight, Mr. Murray had a gun in his waistband and, at one point, was seen chasing the photographer with the handgun in his right hand.

The two Toronto Police officers ran westbound on the north side of the Lake Shore and saw the fight. They shouted at all three men to get down to the ground; the SIU said the men “refused to comply.”

Mr. Murray, gun in hand, and his friend, ran toward the officers, the SIU said. One of the officers told Mr. Murray “repeatedly” to drop his gun and get down on the ground. Mr. Murray “refused to do so and pointed his gun in the direction of the subject officer,” the SIU said.

Both officers fired their guns at Mr. Murray, killing him.

“Mr. Murray represented an imminent threat to not only the subject officers, but other people in the immediate vicinity,” said Ian Scott, director of the SIU.

He was armed with a handgun that he had fired just moments before he was shot by police, did not comply with the officers’ demands and also aimed his gun at one of the officers.

“That subject officer had the lawful authority to shoot Mr. Murray in self-defence and his partner had the authority to shoot because Mr. Murray was likely to cause immediate grievous bodily harm to either the first subject officer or those in the vicinity,” Mr. Scott said.

The SIU reports the results of its investigations to the Attorney General of Ontario.